Secret Service Tactics That Are Insane

Protecting the President of the United States is no easy task, but agents of the United States Secret Service do so without question even if it means risking their own lives. They go to unbelievable extremes to keep the POTUS safe, but there’s much more to those dark suited, sunglass wearing agents than meets the eye! From using high-tech hidden in plain sight, to playing mind games with crowds, let’s take an undercover look at some of the most insane tactics used by the Secret Service.

There’s More of Them Than You Know

The President usually travels with a small team of Secret Service agents, which leaves many people assuming that they’re quite a small operation. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The handful of agents shadowing every move the President makes are just some of the 6,500 other employees in the Secret Service.

Around 3,200 are special agents, some of whom make up the presidential protection division, while others carry out essential missions of investigation and protection. Approximately 1,300 are Uniformed Division officers, who secure venues and facilities for those under the protection of the Secret Service. And finally, a huge 2,000 employees are made up of technical, professional and admin personnel. So, no matter what challenges the Service’s faces, they’ve always got someone ready to take it on.

They Can Protect Anyone

The Secret Service is duty bound to protect the President, but they’re actually authorized to protect an incredibly select list of high-ranking individuals as well. At the top of that list is the President and the Vice-President, who both have special agents permanently assigned to them. And that is followed by the President-Elect, and Vice-President Elect, or any other official next in line in the order of presidential succession.

Protection also extends out to the first family, former presidents, young children of former presidents, visiting heads of states, and other distinguished figureheads such as the pope! It sounds like a super stringent list, but as it turns out anyone can be protected by the service.

It may sound strange, but the President just has to designate an executive order declaring so! That little loophole allows the President to protect anyone they consider to be of importance to the nation, even if they don’t fit the Service’s strict eligibility criteria.

The President Is Never Alone

Being part of a protective detail means following the President everywhere they go, and they really mean everywhere! They stick with them from the doctor’s office to their bathroom breaks, because they just can’t risk the possibility of someone catching the President with their trousers down.

It may sound a little too close for comfort, but when Ronald Reagan was in office dealing with prostate problems, reports suggest an agent was present for all his appointments. For every rectal exam and even coloscopy, an armed agent was ready to take out the doctor if he thought, even for an instant that he might be a threat.

The President Has No Choice

Being constantly surrounded by agents probably makes the President feel incredibly safe, although not even being able to visit the bathroom on their own must get phenomenally frustrating! But no matter how much the President might crave privacy, the secret service legally cannot leave them alone.

According to the laws set out by homeland security, protection of the President and Vice-president by the secret service is mandatory. So even if they ordered their dedicated protection details to leave, the agents would have to stay. All the other families, former Presidents, and figureheads can decline if they don’t want an escort of imposing looking agents hovering around them. But the President can’t say no!

They Keep It Coded

There are plenty of perks to being the President of the United States, from leading the free world to living in the White House. But one that’s undeniably cool is getting to choose your own secret service code name! Agents present the President, Vice-President, and their families with a list of pre-approved terms.

Each family is given a set that begin with the same letter and choose individual codenames that resonate with them personally. President Donald Trump’s codename, for example, was revealed to be Mogul referring to his business empire. Melania Trump was Muse, assumingly because she always looked like she was musing over something she didn’t quite understand.

President Joe Biden adopted his 2016 Vice Presidency codename Celtic, embodying his Irish American heritage. His Vice-President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, opted for Pioneer, a nod to being the first black woman and Indian American woman serving on a major party ticket. Regardless of their meaning, each codename is something that can be pronounced easily and readily, so that agents can quickly refer to them when communicating over the radio.

They Safeguard The Nation's Financial Systems

A lot of people know that the Secret Service was established way back in 1865 by the one and only President Abraham Lincoln. But their job back then wasn’t to protect the president as you can probably tell from President Lincoln’s untimely demise!

They were initially called “The Secret Service Division of the Department of the Treasury” and were responsible for tracking down counterfeiters! While they no longer belong to the department of the treasury, they do still have a duty to protect America’s financial and payment systems from criminal exploitation.

In March 2020, they announced the creation of the Cyber Fraud Task Force, a merger of their Electronic and Financial Crime Task Forces. It was created in order to tackle malicious cyber activity, which is estimated to have cost the US economy a staggering $109 billion in 2016 alone! It’s a duty so important that in the official 2018 Homeland Defense doctrine, the Secret Service’s mission to safeguard America’s financial infrastructure was put before the President’s protection!

Albert Gonzalez: The Hacker Who Helped The Secret Service

When it comes to financial cybercrime, how exactly is the Secret Service meant to catch some of the cleverest hackers in the world? Well, sometimes they actually hire them! At least, that was the case with criminal mastermind Alberto Gonzalez.

In 2008, Alberto was arrested for the theft of some 130 million credit card numbers, which was the largest retail-store theft in history at the time. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but later claimed that he’d been working as an informant for the Secret Service the entire time!

He said he’d been hired to help track down bank-card thieves, which he was paid $75,000 a year to do. Those payments were, apparently, always made in cash so they couldn’t be traced back to the agency. But that was before he decided to dirty his hands with the multi-million-dollar hacking scandal. As such, the Secret Service declined to comment on his case, leaving him to rot in a cell.

But Alberto isn’t the only criminal the agency has reportedly hired! Identity thief Brett Johnson claimed he was recruited by them in 2005 after he was arrested buying merchandise with counterfeit cashier's checks. Instead of serving time, he was paid just $350 a week to help catch other card thieves.

But his public service ended 10 months later when it was discovered, like Alberto, that he’d been two-timing the service by running a fraudulent tax-fraud scheme on the side! It’s currently unknown just how many hustlers and criminals the agency has working for them.

The International Ink Library

Even though we’re in the 21st century, not all financial felonies are committed online. Counterfeit currency is a prominent problem in the US, one that the secret service takes seriously. So seriously in fact, that they have their own dedicated ink library with over 12,000 specific writing ink samples to combat crimes against currency. That includes pens, bottled inks, and even printer cartridges!

How the Secret Service Uses Ink to Solve Crimes by Great Big Story

They’ve been collected from all over the world, and some even date as far back as the 1920’s. With so much ink at their fingertips, the agency can establish what type of ink was put to paper, allowing them to pinpoint specific ink manufacturers. That information can give them a timeframe and a location for the crime. Not only that, but it can also be used to help track down the senders of threatening letters or ransom notes. So, if you ever decide to write a strongly worded letter to the White House, you should probably consider using a pencil!

They Don’t Do Jokes

Making a threat even jokingly against a President or High-ranking official’s life is never a good idea. Not just because it can land you in a whole heap of trouble, but because the Secret Service will put your life under a microscope. Using a threat assessment called ‘protective intelligence’ they evaluate the seriousness of those threats by investigating every single aspect of the aggressor’s life.

Depending on what they find, even joking aggressors can be warned, committed for psychiatric evaluation, or charged with a class E felony punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison! It’s a lesson that former CEO Matt Harrington learned the hard way back in 2016.

He levied a series of threats on private Facebook comments and posts, explaining in detail what he was planning to do to the recently elected President Trump. But unfortunately for him the posts soon went viral, and less than a week later two secret service agents came knocking on his door. He apologized profusely, explaining it was an alcohol fuelled rant that was meant to be a joke. But clearly the Secret Service hadn’t seen the funny side of it!

Lapel Pins

It’s no secret that the President’s protection detail don’t wear uniforms. Instead, they don dark suits and sunglasses to help them blend into the crowd. Although you can often spot them sporting those iconic earpieces which are connected to their radios, allowing them to communicate with the rest of their team. But there’s one overlooked detail of their attire that also serves an incredibly important purpose, it’s those teeny tiny lapel badges.

According to usaspending.gov, since 2019 a company called Blackinton & Co have provided upwards of $6.7 million of lapel pins. Blackinton also claims to be the only badge company in the world authorized to sell SmartShield badges. Those badges contain a tiny radio frequency ID transponder chip that links to an agency database. It lists all the necessary information needed to verify that the person with the badge is the one authorized to carry it.

Usually, those chips only come in identification badges, but for a staggering $6.7 million, it seems that Homeland Security has ordered a custom SmartShield shipment of lapel pins. With that tech at their fingertips, the agency would be able to rapidly identify any imposters trying to get close to the President through their ranks. So good luck to anyone who thinks they could infiltrate the service with nothing more than a good suit and some sunglasses!

The Beast

The Presidential Motorcade is both the safest and riskiest convoy on the planet. That fleet of vehicles is basically an armored rolling White House, tasked with transporting the President from A to B in one piece. And it’s the Secret Service that take point on its travel plans! To ensure they’re prepared for any eventuality, the motorcade contains around 35 separate vehicles complete with a contingency response force, medical facilities, and even a hazardous materials unit!

But at the Centre of it all lies the presidential limousine. That is driven almost exclusively by secret service agents, and has built in ballistic armoring, night vision driving systems, and a sealed cabin capable of enduring a nuclear biological chemical attack! It’s all those incredible features that have earned it the incredibly apt nickname “The Beast”.

But the Secret Service doesn’t just rely on The Beast’s near-impenetrable structure to keep the President safe. As they drive, agent drivers will routinely swap the position of The Beast with a nearby spare car. The spares, at a glance, look almost identical to the Beast right down to the numberplates! So, anyone planning an attack has at least a 50% chance of targeting the wrong car from the outset! Those are odds that definitely aren’t in the attacker’s favour.

Secret Service Driving Skills

In the event of an attack on the motorcade, or any car under the guard of the Secret Service, agents are trained to focus on one goal: getting their protectee out of the danger zone as quickly as possible. As part of their extensive training, all of the 6,500 Secret Service agents and officers have to learn how to drive defensively.

Secret Service Drivers by The Crittenden Automotive Library

Their training takes place at a 546-yard track in Maryland and teaches them all the fundamental techniques of escaping a dangerous situation. That includes maneuvers like the J -turn, a 180-degree spin followed by a sudden acceleration. All agents must pass that 5-day intensive course, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to pilot The Beast.

That takes a further 5-day advanced training program called the Protective Operations Driving Course. But mastering all of those maneuvers and skills while keeping a cool head is so tricky that it has a pass rate of just 60%!

Crowd Control Expertise

A lot of people hate crowds, but none more so than Secret Service agents. It’s their job to ensure their protectees are safe at large event’s and rallies in the midst of tens of thousands of people! Some of which could be hostile. To protect their charges in those scenarios, the Secret Service relies on a perimeter system.

The outer edge of the system works with local police, who do a preliminary check of possible threats in the area. The middle has Secret Service agents among the crowd, actively searching for weapons and relaying any pertinent information to the rest of the team. And then there’s the inner perimeter the agents around the president that form the final line of defense.

To minimize threats, agents are constantly on the look out for hands shoved in coat pockets or other signs that someone might have their hand on a weapon. But you’ll never see an agent on the inner perimeter standing around with their hands in their pockets! They’re often resting by their sides or gripping their lapels in an oddly uncomfortable looking way.

That’s because they must be able to reach for their firearm at a moment’s notice! Although holding them in resting positions like that has led to speculations that agents use fake hands to conceal their grip on readied weapons! Sadly, that handy theory has been debunked.

They’re Human Shields

Despite all their safeguarding procedures, some intent individuals occasionally manage to penetrate the outer and middle perimeter defenses at large events. Like this idiot in the clip below, at President Trump’s election rally back in 2016.

Secret Service Scrambles as Man Attempts to Rush Stage at Trump Rally by Storyful News & Weather

While he soon discovered what the floor tasted like, the Secret Service wasted no time circling the president and scanning the crowd from all sides. And it’s that kind of scramble response that’s an integral part of their training. Without hesitation, every agent there immediately put their bodies on the line to defend their protectee.

Did you notice as well how they remained connected to one another until the threat had been neutralized? That prevents confusion, allowing each agent to remain connected to the protectee and move with them quickly should the situation deteriorate. It’s that selfless behavior that helped saved President Ronald Regan back in 1981.

During an assassination attempt, delusional gunman John Hinckley fired at the President from point blank range, spurring agent Tim McCarthy to step in front of the spray of bullets. Thanks to his selfless reaction, President Regan avoided the brunt of the attack. Fortunately, McCarthy made a full recovery, and while many still call him a hero, he claims it was just what he was trained to do!

They’re Medically Minded

The Presidential Protection Division of the service aren’t just responsible for keeping the president safe, but also for keeping them alive in the event of a medical emergency. The division ensures its agents are trained in “10-minute medicine” or doing everything possible to keep the president alive until they can get medical attention.

When travelling, they ensure the planned route is never more than 10 minutes away from a local trauma center, but even in that short space of time everything can go sideways. As such, the detail assigned to the motorcade always travels with bags of blood matching the President’s blood type just in case an emergency transfusion is needed.

It sounds farfetched, but it was that detailed level of training that helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan after that previously mentioned assassination attempt in 1981. Although he’d been shot, it was initially believed to be a minor injury.

Suddenly, Special Agent Jerry Parr noticed frothy blood coming from Regan’s lips, a serious sign that there was blood in his lungs. The car was immediately re-routed to the hospital, where doctors quickly discovered a bullet lodged in his lung! Thanks to the agent’s training, he got the attention he needed just in time and made a full recovery.

CAT

As formidable as the presidential protection detail is, if they ever need any additional fire power, they have a terrifying tactical unit on speed dial. But it’s not the Marines or even Delta Force that come to the rescue! It’s actually an elite special ops team based inside the agency itself. The Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team or CAT for short are a specialized unit of operatives charged with neutralizing attacks on the POTUS as quickly as possible.

For that to work, they’re always close to their permanent protectees whether that’s in the air or on the ground. While standard agents make sure the President’s body is shielded, the CAT rapidly moves in and takes down anyone they deem to be a threat with overwhelming fire power.

Though very little about their internal operations has been disclosed, it is known that at least two teams of five agents each are always present in the President’s motorcade. You can often see them through the windows of their armored vehicles, clad head to toe in black and kitted out with terrifying looking Knights Armament SR-16 rifles!

Lie-Detector Test

As you can imagine, the bar for joining the secret service as a special agent is set incredibly high. But to make it into positions that require the highest-level security clearances, wannabe agents are required to take a polygraph test. Also known unnervingly as a lie-detector test.

It’s a routine examination which measures physiological responses, like heart rate, breathing patterns, and electrical activity in the skin. All of which tend to fluctuate when someone tells a lie. It’s a method used by some companies to help screen personnel. But the Secret Service use it to reveal every last secret a recruit may have, no matter how embarrassing, shameful or private they might be!

That unbelievably intrusive interview technique makes it almost impossible for candidates to hide anything from the service. But as brutal as it sounds, it’s for a good reason. Knowing every private detail before deciding to hire them means the agency can’t be blackmailed by any hidden pasts or sordid secrets in the future. Although, the irony of secret service agents not being able to keep their own secrets isn’t lost on me!

Oval Office Security Pressure Pads

Even though the Secret Service are tasked with monitoring the President’s every move, there are some matters of state discussed in the Oval Office that even they aren’t privy to. As such, agents are always stationed outside unless instructed otherwise. But if the President closes the door, how can the Secret Service really know where he is?

According to interior sources, they can still monitor the President’s every move thanks to a series of weight-sensitive pressure pads they’ve installed under the rug. That allows them to monitor any movement in any location about the office and bust in if they suspect something’s wrong!

Although there’s a chance that might not be true seeing how much uncovered hardwood floor is exposed around the outer edge of the Oval Office. I mean, if the President decided to stand by the window or walk around the rug, even that would prompt agents to come rushing in!

There Will Always Be A Secret Service

With all the power that the Secret Service has as a division, it must be tempting for homeland security to merge them with other departments. With unlimited access to the POTUS and other high-ranking officials, there’s no limit to what some of those departments could accomplish. Not to mention the protective powers it could grant to some others!

Fortunately, no-one not even the President is allowed to take advantage of the Secret Service’s privileged position like that. At least, not until the law is changed. As part of section 3056, which is the law the Secret Service operates under, it’s illegal to merge the United State Secret Service with any other department. So, as long as there’s a President in the White House, you can guarantee there will always be a dedicated Secret Service.

If you were amazed at these insane secret service tactics, you might want to read about the insane security features of the White House. Thanks for reading!